Prelude To Foundation

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Apr 222009
 

Prelude To Foundation - Isaac Asimov

Prelude To Foundation - Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov
1988

Much like the last book I reviewed, Foundation And Earth, Prelude To Foundation is a dumptruck-full-of-money book. This book is a prequel to the Foundation series, and I’d like to think it was slightly better than Foundation And Earth.

This book focuses on the great Hari Seldon. Before the book begins, Seldon discovered psychohistory and presented a paper on it at a mathematical conference on Trantor, seat of the Galactic Empire, and now everybody wants him to predict a favorable future for their political faction. The only problem is that Seldon doesn’t believe there is any practical application for his new discovery. He meets with the Emperor, and tells him as much, and is about to head to his home planet when he meets with a journalist, Hummin, who advises that he is in danger due to the Emperor’s henchman, Eto Demerzel. The journalist takes Seldon under his wing, and from then the chase is on. The journalist hides Seldon in a local University and puts him under the watchful eye of Dors Venabili, a history professor at the university. After a scary situation, they are moved from sector to sector in Trantor by the journalist, always staying one half step ahead of Demerzel. It is through these adventures that Seldon learns about Galactic history and the truth of robots and Earth, and begins to have faith in the practicality of psychohistory.

This book has much the same plot structure as Foundation and Earth which I whined so eloquently about, and I won’t repeat it here. I always knew what was about to happen as far as plot twists, which took some of the fun out of the book, and was disappointed at how spineless and pliable the young Hari Seldon was. There was a romantic subplot, and it was handled with much more subtlety than the previous book, but I still wouldn’t call it good.

My verdict? Stick with the original trilogy.

 Posted by Shannon Patterson at 8:27 am  Tagged with: , , , ,

Foundation And Empire

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Jan 292009
 

Isaac Asimov - Foundation And Empire

Isaac Asimov - Foundation And Empire

Isaac Asimov
1952

Foundation And Empire picks up from the story told in the first Foundation, with the Foundation kicking galaxy periphery ass, and the remains of the old Empire crumbling slowly. This book happens in two distinct parts.

The first half of the book is a narrative about the war between the old Empire and the Foundation. It flows the same sort of way the first book does, though the narrative is more detailed, taking in roughly half the book rather than the 25 to 30 pages that Foundation used in each of its stories. It may not surprise you to find out that due to the inevitable course of psycho-history as predicted by the great Hari Seldon, the Foundation won the war. I guess the slight twist was that this victory was despite the utter failures of the two protagonists, which was rather amusing.

At this point, I was a little wary of starting the second half of the book. The premise of reading more stories where anything a character does has no effect on the eventual outcome was starting to wear a little thin.

The second part of the book takes an about-face with a new mysterious individual that is not accounted for in the Seldon plan: The Mule. It follows a newly married couple, Bayta and Torin, as they harbor The Mule’s runaway clown through the realm of the Foundation. Bayta and Torin witness all of the catastrophes of the war, including the fall of the Foundation’s home planet, the fall of Torin’s home planet, and the eventual spread of The Mule’s influence all the way to the center of the galaxy, Trantor. Bayta and Torin realize that in order to save the galaxy, they must contact the only group they think capable of stopping The Mule: The Second Foundation.

This second tale is a lot more riveting than the first. For the first time you see people reacting out of emotional motivations rather than blind ambition, and it is a nice change. I saw the big reveal at the end of the book coming from a long way off, but it was satisfying when it came. My favorite character, Bayta, was multi-dimensional and a strong woman.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book to others. I am looking forward to the next book, Second Foundation

 Posted by Shannon Patterson at 5:50 am  Tagged with: , , , ,

Foundation – Isaac Asimov

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Jan 062009
 

Isaac Asimov - Foundation

Isaac Asimov - Foundation


Isaac Asimov
1951

This book is a collection of five short stories all related to each other, telling the early history of the planet Terminus. The old Galactic Empire, centered around the planet of Trantor. A group of psychohistorians, led by Hari Seldon, have figured out the future course of history, and determined that they can mitigate the dark ages that will ensure after the fall of Trantor from twenty thousand years to a single millenia. A group of people have been sent to Terminus to preserve science and culture for the generations to come.

Foundation’s short stories all revolve around moments in this predicted course of history where the inhabitants of Terminus must radically change their ways in order to maintain and improve their own position in the galaxy, and become the driving force of the future. There are no bloody space wars, just gentle tactics, and the stories are brilliant and riveting.

I love Asimov’s short stories. One of my favourite things is the way he describes environments and paints scenes. I wouldn’t consider characterizations one of his strong suits, but he tells a good story and can paint large swaths of space and time by narrating short periods really well. This is the first book in what was originally a trilogy and is now an epic series which encompasses many of his other novels. I am very much looking forward to reading the next book in the original trilogy.

 Posted by Shannon Patterson at 8:33 pm  Tagged with: , , ,
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